Understanding Your Natal Chart With Transits by Psychic Azure

Is Mercury in retrograde again?  It may or may not be depending on when you read this, but doesn’t it seem like if anything feels off or seems to be going wrong it must be due to that dreaded Mercury Retrograde, the bane of all travel plans and the reason 99% of the time we get kicked off the internet.  In reality, while Mr. Mercury in retrograde does seem to enjoy a good communication jam, he lives in your own personal natal chart 365 days a year, and where he lives in that chart has as much to do with how he’s affecting you as whether he’s going forward or backward.  That’s the case with all of the planets so it’s a good idea to understand where they like to hang out in your personal natal chart.  

Psychic Source offers a complete guide to understanding astrology. You may want to keep this handy as it’s quite a lot of information to memorize.

What is a Natal Chart?

Each one of us has a personalized natal astrology chart.  A natal chart simply refers to what was going on in the sky at the exact time of our births.  To be able to calculate your natal birth chart, all you need is your date, time, and place of birth (and a good high-speed internet connection helps.)   

The most commonly understood piece of our natal chart is the sun sign and we’ve all read our weekly horoscope online.  But in reality, the sun sign is only a small part of what makes up our natal chart.  When you take into consideration all the factors that go into a chart, the odds of you having the exact same chart are approximately 1 in 3.7 billion.  That’s right, that’s how special and unique we all are in the eyes of the stars. Understanding the transits in our own personal natal charts can give us deeper insight into ourselves and some of the challenges we might face as well as the blessings that can come in the form of things just coming easily to us.

While our natal chart does not change, the current position of the planets do. It’s also important to know what’s going on in the sky at any given moment, and how the planets might be transiting our natal charts.  You will learn more about how natal charts with transits work, how you can easily read them, and yes how you can possibly even use transits to predict the future. 

Sample Natal Chart with Transits

Let’s look at an example natal chart with transits and see what we can learn about this hypothetical person, and then for fun see if we might be able to provide a heads-up for any future events.  Again, you may want to keep the Psychic Source astrology guide handy as we go through this exercise.  This chart was created in December 2021, so any time references (to future predictions, retrogrades, etc.) are based on that date but remember this is only meant to serve as a sample.  Your specific natal chart is only relevant to one person, and that person is you.

To begin, we are looking at someone with a Scorpio sun, Aries rising, and an Aquarius moon.  This tells us our person is strong-willed, determined, and intensely loyal and has a fascination with the deeper elements of life.  But they also might fall short on following through with things due to the impulsive, headstrong nature of Aries. In the end, the aloof moon in Aquarius could provide a handy contrast with its analytical nature and tendency towards higher thinking.

What Are Aspects?  

But what about everything else?  In this birth chart example, the sun is in Scorpio in the 8th house of inheritance, karma, and regeneration square restrictive Saturn in the extroverted sign of Leo in the 5th house of joy and bliss.  Squares present challenges and this aspect points towards the possibility of delays and challenges into growing into our querant’s highest self.  However, Scorpio in the transformative 8th house says they just might have the ability to reinvent themselves over and over until they get there.

The moon in articulate and high-minded Aquarius is in the 11th house of community and groups forming a supportive sextile to communicative Mercury in the expansive sign of Sagittarius in the 9th house of learning and education.  This indicates our querent might always be learning from individuals within groups and might even adopt new groups quickly, and these life experiences could aid in the transformative process Saturn is insisting upon to find that highest path.  

Expansive Jupiter in emotional Cancer is the 4th house of family, home, and real estate and forms an opposition to the 10th house of public life and achievements in the sign of structured Capricorn.  Uh oh, more upheavals, but again it seems like change is in the stars for this person especially in early life as it's setting the stage for more full realization a little later on. Oppositions tend to have similarities despite the name, and one can sometimes eclipse the other.  Jupiter in Cancer can point to successes in real estate and other domestic matters which can really soften a blow from an abrupt career change.

Lastly, we’ll look at a trine.  A trine works with such similar energies.  It can point towards an aspect of a person’s life where something comes so easily it's like they are doing no work at all.  It’s important to pay attention to a trine as they can be overlooked due to the ease in which they function.  This person has go-getter Mars in the star of the show, Leo in the 5th house of joy and bliss trine, and communicative Mercury in adventurous Sagittarius in the 9th house of higher learning.  So “going for it” might be so easy for this person that they completely overlook what a fortunate placement this is for something called to transform and reinvent themselves constantly. 

Natal Chart Transits – Let’s Make Some Predictions

Now for the fun part!  Let’s look at some current natal transits, meaning the current positions of the planets to see how they relate to this chart and if we can make some predictions for our person.  Restrictive Saturn is conjunct with this person’s moon in Aquarius in the 11th house of community and groups.  A conjunction simply means they are right together and strengthen and intensify one another.  While Saturn is restrictive, he is the way he is because he wants us to create.  So, this transit could really point to something in this area of life taking form.  Let’s see what else Saturn might be up to. 

We see Saturn currently forming a square to the harbinger of sudden changes, Uranus, in the sign of security and values, Taurus. Current transits point to large societal issues and can help us identify themes we might see everywhere, while the natal chart tells us how it might affect us personally.  We could be seeing overall some massive and possibly disruptive changes in how many people are identifying their values, or how it is they approach their personal security.  Let’s go back to the inner ring of the example.

This person has Taurus in the second house of resources. Uranus is transiting the second house so they might be redefining how they utilize resources or how they obtain them in the first place. The square with Saturn might be calling them to place these definitions into manifest form or do something tangible with it.  If this person was contemplating a career change, as they seem to do frequently, now might be the time to lean into it. 

You’ll also notice natal Uranus is in the sign of Scorpio.  Ahhhh… more transformation and current Uranus is also forming an opposition to natal Uranus.  These are working hand in hand so it could feel like the same energy, that of rapid change.  As change and disruption is no new thing to this person, we might predict they are about to take action with a change they have been feeling coming in for them.

Transformative Pluto, the planet associated with Scorpio, is currently transiting structured Capricorn.  It’s been there for a while and overall points to disruption and transformation of top-down structures, and we see some of this playing out in the world.  But for this person specifically?  Pluto is transiting this person’s 10th house of career and public life and bringing with it likely frequent career changes.  Pluto remains in Capricorn for another couple of years!  It’s a very slow mover, so we predict that this individual will continue to grow and evolve rapidly for the foreseeable future but is probably having a blast learning so many new things from their social circle and should maybe just lean into the adventure.  Now with the Saturn moon conjunction, it could be a good time to put some plans into place. They don’t have to stick around forever.

What Can a Natal Chart Say About Relationships?

But what about relationships?  It can’t be all work and no play.  Here we have natal Venus in Scorpio in the 7th house of unions, marriages, and even enemies.  Venus is all about how we attract things such as love and beauty into our lives.  While this person commits deeply to unions, they might not always be smooth sailing and could turn over several times throughout their life.  Venus is retrograde in Capricorn right now forming a supportive sextile, so some good advice for this person might be to take stock of any rules or ways of approaching relationships that didn’t serve in the past and try to let those go.  Come February feminine Venus forms a conjunction with her masculine counterpart Mars on February 14th, Valentine’s Day!  So, working with the energies of this retrograde rather than against them could spell a visit from Cupid’s arrow!

As always astrology points our attention to overall energies so that we can become aware of them and work with the energy, not against it.  Nothing is really either good or bad, it's simply an opportunity to grow.  So have fun with your natal birth chart, and may you be blessed by the stars!

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